Many would like to know how to watch DVD on Windows 10. The free Windows 10 upgrade advances its predecessors in several ways. The Start Menu is back, and Windows developers have the tools they need to fill the Windows Store with ready-made, compelling apps for mouse and touch enthusiasts. What Windows 10 does not do is improve listening to music and greatly enjoy different types of entertainment. The new Groove Music and Movies & TV apps are better in terms of features than their Windows 8.1 counterparts, not major upgrades.
In fact, Windows 10 forgoes some big gains based on your movie and TV viewing habits. Microsoft has long abandoned Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player, moving to new solutions that better fit the competition. Windows Media Center does not exist in Windows 10 at all and will not receive any further updates. Windows Media Player is in Windows 10, but Microsoft has reduced its DVD playback capabilities.
Watching DVDs in Windows 10 requires a DVD playback application or utility installed on the computer. Here’s what you need to know about how to watch DVD on Windows 10 and why Microsoft made this change.
How to Watch DVD on Windows 10: Why Is It Gone?
Microsoft has a long and crafted answer on why Windows Media Player in Windows 10 doesn’t have DVD playback. Microsoft was initially dependent on hardware manufacturers to add DVD playback software to their machines. DVD players cost a lot because software manufacturers have to pay stakeholders a free license when they add DVD compatibility to their software. With more and more computers coming without disk drives and video watching habits changing, Microsoft decided to remove this feature from its program completely before the release of Windows 10.
Windows Media Player hasn’t been significantly updated in years, but the company still maintains it for compatibility reasons. The situation we have now is the result of Microsoft balancing priorities. It looks like Microsoft doesn’t want to continue paying DVD license fees for all versions of Windows while fewer users are taking advantage of it.
Most users rent or buy music through a digital store such as iTunes. Windows 10 has the Windows Store, an all-in-one solution for buying media from Microsoft. Microsoft hopes that users will skip the discs and buy their content from there.
How to Watch DVD on Windows 10: What You Need To Do
With DVD playback officially coming out of Windows, Microsoft hopes users can take advantage of its other options. To be absolutely clear, every device upgraded from an older version of Windows should have a separate DVD playback utility that came with that computer. Windows 10 users can continue to watch DVDs through these programs. Cyberlink is a major provider of DVD software for hardware manufacturers, for example.
If Cyberlink or other software is not available, PC owners with fresh Windows 10 installations have other options.
Microsoft DVD Player
Microsoft may have removed DVD Play in Windows Media Player, but it cleverly added a dedicated app to the task. This application is called Microsoft DVD Player. Microsoft DVD Player available directly from Microsoft’s Windows Store. You can buy it, install it on all your computers and you have solved your DVD playback problem in Windows 10.
That’s good news. The bad news is that the Microsoft DVD Player costs exactly $14.99. Worse still, initial reviews of the app don’t seem to indicate that it works well enough for some people. Reviews of the apps are full of people complaining about video artifacts. Also, many people are not happy that they cannot play Blu-ray movies in addition to DVDs.
VLC
The VLC app for Windows 8 does not support DVD playback, but the Desktop version does. Made by VLC Videos, and the organization is known worldwide for its free and accessible media playback utilities. Download the Windows version of VLC and make sure you select the DVD playback option during the installation process.
Again, VLC is completely free for anyone to download and use.
Theoretically, Microsoft plans to improve Microsoft DVD Player over time, which means that eventually watching DVDs with this app should get better. Even if it isn’t, VLC is a completely acceptable, free alternative that should keep working for years to come.
Good luck with your free Windows 10 upgrade. We hope that one of these two DVD playback solutions will help fill the feature gap.
